Kickstarter recently started a campaign to defend net neutrality. Maybe they do not understand what net neutrality is or they simply do not care.
I have written about net neutrality in the past. I will keep this discussion short. It is not something which protects free speech. Especially when combined with other regulations can actually restrict free speech by giving the government exceptional control over the flow of information online. But two components of net neutrality can be analyzed through an analogy regarding Kickstater itself. The two components are the fee model restrictions and the restrictions on editorial authority.
Kickstarter charges a percentage of the total revenue generated from a campaign. Currently it charges 5%. So if a campaign only receives $1,000 Kickstarter will receive $50. If a campaign receives $1M then Kickstarter will charge $50,000. In other words, the more the service is used, the more Kickstarter charges. Net neutrality restricts the ability of an internet service provider to charge more for heavier use, even though heavier use actually reduces the ability of others to use the service.
The other main component of net neutrality is a limitation on the ability of an internet service provider to restrict content. An ISP is a content facilitator. While everyone has a right to free speech, nobody has a right to have that speech facilitated by someone else. Similarly, Kickstarter reviews every single campaign. It uses a number of factors to decide whether or not to approve the campaign. Some of these are related to legality. Others are related to the ability of the campaign to succeed. While there is nothing wrong with this process, it is actually fairly restrictive, in comparison to other crowd funding sites like Indiegogo. But if Kickstarter were treated like an ISP under net neutrality, they would lose the say of what campaigns to allow. They would have to approve all campaigns.
Now, if Kickstarter is willing to change to a flat fee model and is willing to eliminate the review process so that any and all campaigns are allowed on the system, then perhaps they can talk about net neutrality. Until then, Kickstarter is just being ignorant and hypocritical.